Lifting and transporting objects and items from one location to another often presents considerable problems in terms of not being safe, efficient and/or cost effective. These problems can be exacerbated in those industries and environments (e.g., shipyards, warehouses, military deployment locations, etc.) where all of the lifting and/or transporting of objects or items is required to be done manually due to the unavailability of lift or transport assistance systems, or where a part of the lifting and/or transporting of objects is done with at least some assistance, but the assistance is done with an available lift or transport assistance system limited in its functionality, thus making its use impractical or ineffective for certain tasks.
The difficulty of lifting and/or transporting objects from one location to another, or even the inability to do so, when such is needed is commonly referred to as a “lift gap,” with the discipline being referred to as “gap logistics.” Currently, there are several so called “lift gaps” associated with payloads of up to 400 lbs presenting considerable problems and challenges in public, private and military settings. In many cases, logistics personnel are often required to lift, transport or otherwise manipulate heavy or bulky payloads in any way possible, sometimes with the help of awkward and ineffective and/or inefficient assistance systems, and sometimes manually without assistance.
One illustrative example is in logistics (e.g., military or other types of logistics settings), which can comprise the discipline of carrying out the movement, maintenance and support of various objects. In short, logistics can include the aspects of acquisition, storage, distribution, transport, maintenance, evacuation, and preparation of material and equipment. Whatever the setting, logistics support personnel often faces the challenge of lifting and transporting equipment that can weigh up to several hundred pounds or more, thus posing significant logistics problems. Moving these about can require great effort on the part of logistics personnel, even with the help of the limited functionality assistance systems made available to them. Additional challenges or problems exist when there is a large number of objects required to be lifted and transported, particularly on a daily basis, even if these objects weigh less than the relatively heavier objects. Indeed, it is not uncommon for logistics personnel to each lift and transport several thousand pounds a day, sometimes over difficult terrain. Moreover, much of this is done manually, unfortunately leading to a variety of orthopedic and other injuries, as well as a high rate in personnel turnover.
Therefore, a need exists for a system that can be intuitively operated by a user and that performs most, if not all, of the work associated with lifting and maneuvering heavy and/or large number of objects from one location to another.